07 Quality

Output O7 – Quality assurance

Description

Intellectual Outcome O7 is dedicated to the quality assurance (QA) of the project, and more generally for the QA of the Open Badge system: developing tools for the QA of Open Badge initiatives. The project’s QA includes formative evaluation of processes and methodologies and summative evaluation to guarantee the quality and reliability of deliverables and outcomes. O7 also investigates quality aspects of the Open Badges system.

O7-A1 Open Badges and Quality Management
This result is a Discussion Paper dedicated to Open Badges and Quality Management. The paper focuses on the quality aspects of the varied spectrum of Open Badge (OB) initiatives. This document presents data gathered from the Quality Survey and provides recommendations for QM of Open Badge initiatives. We outline our methodology, introduce Personas and a role-based approach to quality and present the findings from the survey in relation to the different stages of an Open Badge initiative: initial design; implementation; delivery and review. Under each section, we provide some over-arching recommendations influenced by the survey data. This document encourages discussion on quality issues related to Open Badges. A Quality Canvas will also be produced to accompany this paper. The research that informs this paper is combined with existing research into designing badges of value realised through the development of the Digitalme Badge Design Canvas. (downloaded more than 9000 times!).

O7-A2 Quality Plan
This result is the Quality Plan called “Quality Manual” in the OBN project. The plan is only for use within the project partnership and it describes the agreed rules of working, communication and relationship amongst the partners, methods and formats of cooperation within the partnership. It also describes the working methods for planning the work, process for preparation of project outcomes including obtaining inputs from all the partners, raising alerts and implementing corrective actions. The document includes the information about the project’s “house style” and information about conducting meetings and web conferences. The annexes provide formats for the final delivery of project documents and outcomes. This document is not published on the OBN portal as it only serves internal purposes of the project.

O7-A3 Quality Assurance Implementation
This result is dedicated to Quality Implementation of the OBN project and includes the formative and summative evaluation of the project’s processes and outcomes. The tools and reports delivered by the evaluating partner help to monitor progress within the project and to serve as the “critical friend” role so crucial for quality of the deliverables. Periodical reports bring suggestions to the Project Management Team about any issues which might arise. Quality Implementation Plan encompasses a number of instruments such as online surveys used to collect, analyse and report on the quality of the project.

This result is a report on Open Badge Quality Management Guidelines. The publication is based on the Discussion Paper O7-A1 and the feedback from the OBN community. The Guidelines are related to the quality of Open Badges, are published on the OBN portal and serve as recommendations for Open Badge issuers, receivers and users.

>The creation of these resources has been (partially) funded by the ERASMUS+ grant program of the European Union under grant no.2014-1-DE01-KA200-000675. Neither the European Commission nor the project's national funding agency DAAD are responsible for the content or liable for any losses or damage resulting of the use of these resources.